Saving the Black Sea Issue 8, June 2005 Credits && Acknowledgements Select your language: EN BG GE RO RU TR UA Official Publication of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution and the GEF Ecosystems Recovery Project

EC Assistance to the Black Sea Commission

The Black Sea and Europe. The Black Sea has been long recognized as a unique environmental treasure whose importance spans far beyond than merely serving as a fishing and recreational resource, an important biodiversity habitat and a transport corridor. For one, the transport facilities provided by the Black Sea are actually an important link in the global and wider regional commercial transport network, affecting the economies not only of the Black Sea countries, but all economies down the supply chain and its recreational and biodiversity value benefits all.

With the potential expansion of the European Union to include two of the Black Sea’s riparian countries – Bulgaria and Romania in 2007 and the starting of EU membership talks with Turkey in the foreseeable future the European Union Member States’ shoreline and that of its ac-cession countries will run up to more than 50% with an even larger estimated share of coastal population.

Support to the Black Sea Commission. The European Commission supported directly the Commission’s operative organ – the Permanent Secretariat – by provid-ing for its institutional build up as well as investing in its informational infrastructure and technical capacity. Since 2003 with the aid of the EC the basic information system’s infra-structure was set up, the project and financial management capacity were built up and the mechanisms for sus-tainability were set in place. Further to this several measures aimed har-monizing the activities of the Com-mission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution with those of the European Directives are being implemented. On the one hand the Black Sea Information System is being modified to reflect Water Framework Directive reporting re-quirements, and on the other the de-velopment of data quality control mechanisms are being put in place, and on the other the subsidiary or-gans of the Commission, the Activ-ity Centres and the advisory Groups enjoy substantial financial support for their technical infrastructure and current activities.

Further, guidance documents and strategies, developed by the Euro-pean Union are discussed in the Ad-visory Groups of the Commission in view Of adoption of their principles, harmonization and transposition. Currently the principles related to habitats and ICZM, monitoring, etc. are being considered.

Investment Facility

With the progression of EU enlargement the Danube – Black Sea region has gained importance as a region requiring urgent addressing of environmental problems arising from active exploitation. The water re-sources of the Danube and Black Sea Regions are used intensively for drinking water supply, irrigation, industry, fishing, tourism and recreation, power generation, navigation and river and maritime trans-port. The Black Sea is the final destination of all discharged wastewater, pollution in the coastal areas and loss of biodiversity and over fishing.

DABLAS - the Investment Facility for Remedying Priority Pollution Sources in the Black Sea

The DABLAS Task Force was set up in November 2001 to provide a platform for cooperation for the protection of water and water related ecosystems in the Danube and Black Sea Region. This was in response to an EC Communication adopted in 2001, which highlighted priority action required to improve the environmental status. The DABLAS Task Force Task Force comprises representatives from the countries in the region, the International com-mission for the Protection of the River Danube (ICPDR), The Com-mission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution (Black Sea Commission), International Financing Institutions (IFI’s), the EC, interested EU Member States, other bilateral donors and other regional and international organizations with related functions.

The first activities of DABLAS included the fresh inventory of priority investment projects in the Danube and Black Sea areas. In the second half of 2002 and first quarter of 2003 a priority project list derived form priority national investment programmes, municipal develop-ment plans and other sources was compiled. The compiled project data was input in a database and the projects were ranked according to criteria developed in conjunction with the ICPDR. To accelerate project development and to narrow the distance to actual project implementation and hence assert real improvement in the status of the environment of the Black Sea the Permanent Secretariat commissioned in 2005 a Project Broker to give new impetus to project development and accelerate implementation by re-viewing existing projects, identification of new projects and assist project proponents to develop existing projects as to their bankability by IFI’s and donors, as well as propose reforms to facilitate financing.

Plamen Dhzadzhev

Executive Director,
Permanent Secretariat
Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution

[<<]    [>>]